*LTTE targetted civilians fleeing to safety

*Forced conscription of children, old people

The Court of Inquiry investigating into the controversial Channel 4 claims, concluded yesterday that the instances of shelling referred to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report were not caused by the Sri Lankan Army.

The Court of Inquiry appointed by Sri Lanka Army Commander Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya completed its inquiry concerning the first part of their investigation with regard to the allegations of excessive civilian casualties, as a result of alleged heavy shelling.

Army spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya in a press release yesterday said the Court of inquiry report concluded that instances of shelling mentioned in the LLRC report were not caused by the Sri Lanka Army and the civilian casualties might have occurred due to unlawful acts by the LTTE.

He said that the President of the Court of Inquiry Major General Chrisantha de Silva handed over the Court of Inquiry (Cof I) Report to the Army Commander at the Army Headquarters yesterday.

The Army spokesman said the Court of Inquiry report has upheld that civilian casualties may have resulted, due to unlawful acts by the LTTE.

“These acts include targeting civilians fleeing to the safety of Army held areas and likely routes of escape, dropping of artillery rounds fired by ill trained LTTE gunners

on to civilian concentrations, employment of sub standard artillery guns and incompatible and substandard artillery rounds obtained from illegal sources by the LTTE, forced conscription of civilians including children and old people for LTTE combat purposes thus exposing them to danger’, he said.

The Army Court of Inquiry on Channel 4 Allegations referred to in the LLRC Report submitting its findings to the Commander of the Army Inquiry reveals that the instances of shelling were not Caused by the Army.

The Army Court of Inquiry appointed by the Commander of the Army Lt General Jagath Jayasuriya VSV USP ndu psc to investigate the controversial Channel 4 claims referred to in the LLRC Report, completed their inquiry concerning the 1st Part of their investigation with regard to the allegation of excessive civilian casualties that said to have been caused due to heavy shelling.

On Friday, February 15. 2013 the President of the Court of Inquiry Major General Chrishantha De Silva RWP USP handed over the Court of Inquiry (C of I) Report to the Commander of the Army Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya VSV USP ndu psc at the Army Headquarters.

Considering the evidence presented before it, the Court has concluded that the Army High Command had addressed their minds to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) well in advance as far back 1990s and all troops have been educated to observe the standard procedures that are followed to prevent civilian casualties.

Evidence before the court has conclusively established that the Humanitarian Operation was conducted strictly in accordance with the “Zero Civilian Casualty” directive made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and commanders at all times obeyed the said directive and the directives from the higher headquarters with regard to No Fire Zones (NFZs) and even where the LTTE terrorists had fired from NFZs, commanders refrained from firing at such NFZs. It has also been revealed that artillery commanders had added 500 m to the boundaries of NFZs given by higher headquarters thereby extending the boundaries of NFZs by 500 m.

Evidence revealed that at all stages of the Humanitarian Operation, the Sri Lanka Army behaved as a well-disciplined military force observing the IHL and law of war and they took all the precautions to avoid civilian casualties and all those who came under the control of the Sri Lanka Army, including surrendered/captured LTTE cadres, were treated humanely observing the IHL to the letter. On the contrary, shocking details of war crimes committed by LTTE terrorists such as using of civilian as human shields, summary executions of civilians who attempted to escape to army lines, forced conscription of children for combat purposes were revealed at the inquiry. The court noted that the international community had failed in their duty to stop the war crimes committed by the LTTE terrorists.

From the testimony presented, the C of I concluded that the instances of shelling referred to in the LLRC Report were not caused by the Sri Lanka Army and civilian casualties might have occurred due to unlawful acts by LTTE. These acts include targeting civilians fleeing to the safety of Army held areas and likely routes of escape, dropping of artillery rounds fired by ill-trained LTTE gunners on to civilian concentrations, employment of sub-standard artillery guns and incompatible and sub-standard artillery rounds obtained from illegal sources by the LTTE, forced conscription of civilians including children and old people by LTTE for combat purposes, thus exposing them to danger.

The C of I will now proceed to investigate the 2nd part of their mandate, to wit Channel 4 allegation on summary executions of captured LTTE terrorists. The Commander of the Army will study the Court of Inquiry Report and hand over the Report along with his observations to the Secretary Defence in due course.

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